


Noted Orphan, Shawn Hunter

by therudestflower



Category: Boy Meets World, Girl Meets World
Genre: Adoption, Don't look to closely at my works I only have one thing I write about, Found Family, Gen, Very very long coming of age
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-10
Updated: 2020-01-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:00:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22194451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/therudestflower/pseuds/therudestflower
Summary: Shawn Hunter knows who he is. He's the kid who blew up the mailbox. He's the guy who had ill-advised facial hair in college. And he's an orphan. He's fine with it all.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 57





	Noted Orphan, Shawn Hunter

The first person to offer to adopt Shawn Hunter, noted orphan, was another seven-year-old. He was friends with Georgia Monroe, who lived on the other side of the trailer park, for about four days in second grade. She lived in a double-wide with air conditioning and had a mom who cut the crust off her jelly sandwiches. 

It was a sweltering hot September, which Shawn used to argue for spending all their time on her side of the park. He thought they went inside his trailer once, and he wasn’t sure why, but after she very seriously told him, “My mom can adopt you.” 

He remembers knowing why she said that, but as an adult, he’s not sure what actually happened. He remembers saying, “That’s so dumb, you can’t adopt someone whose parents are alive.”

“You can adopt someone if their parents are bad. That’s why my cousin is my sister.” 

Later that day Shawn sprayed her with a hose, said it was just to be nice because it’s hot, and never talks to her again. 

* * *

  
  


In a one year period, every single person who promised to take care of him changed their mind. His mom. His dad. The Matthews. Even Jon. 

Later, a professional will point out that his mother and father leaving with no warning in rapid succession, and being rejected by his surrogate family may have been traumatic. He’ll grin wide and say, “Oh is that why I keep choosing women who leave me?” and they’ll say, “Yes” and Shawn will let the bill for the session go to collections. 

Jon tried to argue that he hadn’t actually done anything wrong while Shawn packed up his room to go back to his dad’s. 

“Shawn, if I’d become your legal guardian I worried that you would see it as me taking you away from your dad.” 

“Cool,” Shawn said, “we’re fine, Jon.” 

“Shaaaawn,” Jon said, stretching his name out in a whine. “Shawn, you know if your dad didn’t come back right this minute, if I knew how important it was to you, I would have done the paperwork.” 

Shawn zipped up his bag and walked past Jon out the door with it over his shoulder. “Jon, this wasn’t meant to be permanent right? It worked out for the best. Relax. I’m not going to have a complex about it.” 

If fifteen years later Shawn’s voice cracks when he brings it up after lunch with Jon, it’s just extremely late puberty. And it’s hysterical. 

* * *

  
  


He gets a job in New York as an assistant to a very strange photographer. During the interview, while Shawn was answering a question about lenses, Vin leaned down under his desk and came up with a Polaroid camera and snapped a picture. 

Vin interrupted him. “You got a wife?” 

“No, not even a little.” 

“Family? Parents?” 

Shawn suspected his answer would be the correct one. “Nope, no family. Full-on orphan. Just me, no attachments.” 

He works for Vin three months before requesting time off to go to the Matthew’s Fourth of July in Philadelphia. 

Vin lets him. 

Four months later he’s back late from lunch with Jon explains it as, “Basically just getting lunch with this guy who thinks he’s my dad two hours a month.” 

Six months later he asks for a few days off because Jack is back for less than a week before going back to the Peace Corps. 

“Thought I hired an orphan,” Vin remarked when Shawn called, snowed-in in Philadelphia for Christmas with the Matthews.

“Yeah, somehow I still developed relationships, weird right?” 

“You seemed to think so.” It makes no sense but almost nothing Vin says does, so Shawn doesn’t mention it when he gets back. 

* * *

Jon gets a job as an administrator for New York Public Schools which affords him a tiny apartment in a somewhat nice neighborhood. It’s smaller than his apartment in Philadelphia, so when Shawn stays too late to get any sleep before going to work just down the street, Jon lets him crash on the couch. 

The first time, Jon grinned like he was expecting this. Like he _wanted_ it. Shawn was twenty-nine and extremely adjusted to living on his own, and the entire night they tripped between peers and something else, the way they did at home. Jon ordered for him before he arrived, and only when the food arrived did he self consciously point out that Shawn could have ordered for himself. Jon asked about his job and listened with parental focus, then they spent a while talking about the woman Jon was hoping to get serious with. 

At this point, Shawn was years older than Jon was when he started at John Adams, and he couldn’t imagine volunteering to take care of a fourteen-year-old. 

The fourth time, Shawn doesn’t sleep over, but Jon says, “You know, we’ve got a teacher getting disciplined for letting a student live with them. It’s considered inappropriate now, they might get fired.” 

“Are you going to fire them?” Shawn asks. 

Jon smiles, and it’s suddenly annoying. “You know, there’s proper channels that they didn’t go through. But this kid, going to CFS wouldn’t have done anything, and they couldn’t stay at home.” 

Shawn tries to make it a joke when he says, “Would you have fired yourself then, Jon?” 

Jon seems to consider this, and it takes long enough that Shawn can begin planning why he needs to leave immediately after this conversation ends. 

“This kid deserved more than a temporary bed to crash on,” Jon says, “he needed a parent more than a friend. That’s not mine to decide but, I would have told myself to commit to you. To be all in, more than a friend, become your guardian.” 

Shawn changes his plan and laughs and spreads his arms wide. “Well, I’m no worse for wear, am I? I’ve got all my teeth, I’ve never been in prison. I’m doing great.” 

* * *

One time when the Matthews are visiting him upstate with Jacob, he asks them when they’re going to the city to see Cory, and Amy says, “Oh sweetheart, we just came up here to see you.” 

* * *

When he's firmly an adult with all the trappings, Cory’s daughter decides he should become her best friend’s father and in a true moment of foolhardiness, he agrees. He’s gotten extremely bored, and for a very stupid second, it seems like a good idea. Parenting seems like an easy gig. He pays for some of her school supplies, listens to what she’s willing to share, and buys some clothes. 

It’s not long after the wedding and moving in that he learns that parenting isn’t just buying clothes. It’s also not just usually having food or talking to your kid sometimes, which he figured out earlier but is still annoyed by how _easy_ it is to do more than that. It’s saying “You need a minute?” when your kid throws a pencil during science homework. And getting to know her friends because they’re currently way more important to her than you are. 

Maya is rude sometimes, she lies about getting his notebook wet. She says, “My god, you are dull,” when he turns 60 minutes on. He picks her up from a police station two months in. 

He doesn’t want to leave her. He doesn’t hate her. 

* * *

  
  


It takes longer than he thought it would to get in a courtroom to adopt Maya. They have to live together for a few months, scratch together money for lawyers and court fees and talk to her dad some. But it happens. He, Katy and Maya wanted it to be quiet, but Corey was involved so everyone even tangentially involved in their family was invited. Including Jon. 

There is a pre-party and a post-party because, Cory. He doesn’t even have to demand he and Katy not be responsible for one of them, because he has to fight to even get to host one. The pre-party is in Cory’s apartment and Jon brings some strange kind of chicken. 

“Remember this?” Jon asks. Shawn takes a bite of the chicken but it doesn't bring anything up except that he wishes he had a napkin to spit it into. “It’s chicken ala tang? Remember? Me, twenty-four with no idea how to feed a kid so I made chicken with Tang?” 

“Jon, my God. We’re adults now. Feeding me this was one thing, but Maya is accustomed to edible food.” 

Jon leads him away from where Eric was loudly doing something. “Did you happen to read a lot into adoption law during this process?” 

“Uh, yeah. Turns out there isn’t a law against people who blew up mailboxes parenting, could you imagine?” 

Jon nods. “I can’t believe that still comes up, that happened before I even met you.”

Shawn shrugs, “Yeah, I just hope this weird idea Maya is a bad kid goes away. She’s no worse than any other kid, but her friends make jokes about it. It’s bad for a kid to hear that. It could mess up her whole life.”

“I hope it doesn’t,” Jon says, “You know, I meant what I said. I regret not adopting you.” 

“That’s nice, thanks man.” 

“I mean it, Shawn.” 

That anger comes back, the one that elbows it’s way past the jokes, that he needs to beat back as quickly as possible because more powerful than anything else. He manages to keep his voice down when he says, “God, Jon. That’s so dumb. You couldn’t have, my parents had full rights to me, they would have had to voluntarily surrender them. It would have been traumatic. So, it’s a nice idea, but it wouldn’t have been possible.” 

Jon holds up his hands in surrender. “Okay. Yeah. You’re right. It would have been all but impossible when you were a kid. But you’re not now. Did you notice that in New York adults can adopt other adults? There’s a three-month habitation requirement, but that can be waived. Or you, Maya and Katy can move into my one bedroom.” 

Confusion and amusement shove the anger aside. “Jon. I mean. This is really for former foster kids, or inheritance issues.” 

Jon raises an eyebrow. “You’ve done research on this?” 

“Well yeah, I have multiple offers. Listen, it’s fine. I don’t shed tears over my dead and missing parents anymore. I’ve got you, I’ve got the Matthews. I’ve got Jack when he’s not being a dick. And I have a wife and a daughter. I’m not adrift in the universe. Adopting me would just be a symbol. Those don’t really do anything.” 

He knows Jon might be insulted, but he just nods. “It’s just interesting you know? Mr. New Yorker poet, abstract photographer with thousand-word articles on the energy of forests. If nothing else, in my class I taught you the importance of symbols.” 

Shawn grins. “Oh Jon, I thought you knew me. I didn’t learn a single thing in your class.” 

* * *

Maya walks on air for weeks, she introduces herself to strangers just so she can say, “And this is my dad!” Shawn tests out how to say, “my daughter” to the point that he refers to Maya as “my daughter” to Cory, who takes on his high voice and says, “Pardon me? Who is this person you are speaking of? I just, I just can’t tell how you are related to this person.” 

It’s innocent. It’s dumb. But it sticks in Shawn’s head. How are you related to this person? How is he related to the Matthews, or Topanga or Jon?

He calls Jon and doesn’t let him say hi. It’s late at night, he and Katy managed to corral Maya into bed with well-placed lies. Katy is still up, she has the sleeping patterns of a fruit fly, but he’s alone in the kitchen. 

“What would you be if you adopted me?” 

Jon hesitates and Shawn feels like an idiot until he says, “Well, the laws don’t spell that out. It formalizes a parent-child relationship, but you are not a child. So I would be your parent.” 

“But you’re not my parent.” 

“No.”

“I have a dad. Had a dad. And I have a family, it’s not like you’re going to start dodging my calls, or doing this would stop you from doing it. I feel how this changed things for Maya and I don’t know how it could for me. I don’t know how it would have with the Matthews when I was in college or with you now.” 

“Symbols are important, kid.” 

Katy quietly comes in the kitchen and makes a face as she takes a freeze pop out of the freezer. Shawn reaches out towards it, and Katy pulls a blue one out of the fridge and hands it to him. 

“Yeah, they are,” Shawn says, “but you don’t always need them.” 


End file.
